BATON ROUGE - LSU sophomore sprinter Kimberlyn Duncan has spent much of her career flying under the radar.

Kimberlyn Duncan

That includes her own.

It wasn't until her breakthrough victory at the NCAA Indoor 200 meters in March did Duncan completely grasp what the power in her legs could produce.

Now she's on the precipice of joining a long tradition of LSU female sprinters when she leads the Lady Tigers at the NCAA outdoor track and field championships, which begin today at Drake Stadium in Des Moines, Iowa.

Duncan, along with 400 hurdler Cassandra Tate and high jumper Brittani Carter, enter the meet with the nation's top performances. The sprinter-laden Lady Tigers will challenge front-runners Texas A&M, the defending champion, and Oregon in seeking the school's 15th outdoor women's title.

"What puts us in position is we're going to be able to go head to head with those two teams in enough events that if we were to beat their people more than they beat our people we can change that score at the end of the day," LSU Coach Dennis Shaver said.

The LSU men's squad also has some highly placed qualifiers, among them Walter Henning and Michael Lauro in the hammer throw, and sprinter Horatio Williams in the 100 and 200.

Duncan, along with teammate Semoy Hackett, give LSU a baseline of overall strength in the sprints. LSU has four entrants in the 100 and two in the 200, which is Duncan's specialty. She also anchors the 400 relay and is coming on strong in the 100 as her mechanics improve.

Duncan's emergence during the indoor season gave her momentum in the outdoors, and she has responded with a personal best of 23.04 seconds. At 5 feet, 8 1/4 inches, Duncan is tall for a sprinter and more effective in the longer races when she can overcome the physics of her size to finish strong. But the indoor title pushed her through a mental barrier that has accelerated her progress.

"Now she looks at herself in a lot more positive way," Shaver said. "Before it was, 'I wonder if I can'. Now it's, 'I know I can do this.'"

Duncan, who had never run indoors in high school in Katy, Texas, remembers staring at her hand before the race and seeing it shaking. She said she had always had a bit of an issue with nervousness but calmed herself down by meticulously going through her race thoughts. She concentrated on lifting her knees, coming hard out of the bank turn and "blasting" through the finish.

She had to wait for a second heat to finish before her winning time of 22.85 seconds was confirmed and her first national title in hand. Tears then flowed.

"It still didn't sink in until I got to the back, and I got emotional," she said. "It was one of my goals to be All-American by (my) senior year. I was like, 'Oh my goodness, I won it.' It's still sinking in."

Duncan's newfound confidence carried over to the outdoor season, where she regularly clocked in with sub-23-second times, including a personal best of 22.18 at the LSU Alumni Gold meet and a 22.27 for the SEC outdoor title.

"It's been a good feeling that everything I've been working towards is finally coming together, and it's piecing out to where I'm competing the way I always wanted to," Duncan said.

A track athlete since the fourth grade, Duncan eschewed other sports to concentrate on her first love. She wasn't high on the recruiting charts until her senior year after she had committed to LSU, getting almost no interest from local powerhouses Texas A&M, Baylor and Texas.

Duncan wasn't exactly happy about that. She ended her junior season running in the 24s in the 200, but she blossomed as a senior to win the state title in the 200.

Suddenly, college coaches began to notice her. Late in the season, a Baylor assistant ran up to her and asked her where she was going to college after she set a high school record at the Baylor track stadium, months after she had committed to LSU.

"She ran every race in her senior year like it was her last," said Duncan's father, Anton. "She lost a lot of races her junior year she could have won. Now, she's adjusted to college life, and she has a different outlook. She has a better handle on things."